3. For Rouenna, Sigrid Nunez

There are few books that chronicle the experiences of women who served in Vietnam. For Rouenna is one of them. Rouenna, who grew up with the unnamed narrator of this story, served as a combat nurse – her nights blood-filled as she tends injured soldiers, days adrenaline-pumped caring for boys who’ll soon die, intimate connections available instantly with other military personal at the front line. When Rouenna dies, a suicide without warning, it is up to the narrator to tell her story. For Rouenna is also about class stratification and class mobility in America, how both Rouenna and the narrator navigate their escapes from the Staten Island housing project where they grew up and how they leave “the forgotten borough” for lives somewhere else.